Efforts today to reach the bodies of the two occupants of a twin-engine airplane that crashed Saturday night on the northeast face of 13,723-foot Vermejo Peak were called off because of rapidly deteriorating weather conditions and avalanche danger.

Sgt. James Chavez of the Costilla County Sheriff’s Department said search-and-rescue crews got within a mile and a half of the debris field left by the Beech Baron but had to retreat from the mountain 38 miles west of Trinidad because of extremely bad weather and the avalanche danger.

The search-and-rescue crews that attempted to reach the site were on Sno-Cats from neighboring Las Animas County, according to Chavez.

Chavez said there were two people on board — a man and a woman — when the plane refueled in Pueblo. He said the plane, which was from Calgary, Canada, was headed to Santa Fe.

Canadian authorities are in the process of notifying relatives of the pilot and passenger. When that is done, authorities will release the names of the crash victims, probably later today, said Chavez.

The cause of the crash is unknown. The pilot never broadcast a “mayday” or turned on a distress beacon that could be picked up by search aircraft or satellites, officials said.

The debris field was spotted Sunday by a military helicopter from Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque.